Stressing over Bank Stress Tests
If it weren't tacky to say I told you so, I'd refer you to my previous posts and interviews pointing out the dangers and pitfalls of the bank stress tests. They weren't just a mistake; they were a...
View ArticleMark-to-Market, OTTI, Loan Loss Reserves, ETC.
"Accounting Arcana" "It's fascinating that the not-so-tiny matter of a $30 billion loss comes down to accounting arcana, but it does." I copied that quote down last night when half asleep and this...
View ArticleThe Fed’s Balance Sheet and Excess Bank Reserves
People keep talking and writing about the explosion of the money supply and the coming inflationary tsunami. Let me point out once again that the M1 and M2 measures of the money supply spiked but have...
View ArticleU.S. Banking Crisis
Recently, I did three interviews on the banking crisis for the Las Vegas Money Show. I discussed whether federal bank bailouts are working, whether the banking crisis is over, and whether the banks...
View ArticleThe Fed’s Box: Quantitative Easing and Rising Long-Term Interest Rates
Once upon a time, people took rising interest rates as evidence of tighter money. Then, circumstances and growing sophistication led to recognition that rising inflation and/or rising inflationary...
View ArticleHammering Hank Paulson: Congressional Testimony
Yesterday, I defended Gentle Ben Bernanke. I said I believed him when he said he didn’t say something and said it would have been appropriate if he had. Or, something like that. A committee of Congress...
View ArticleKevin Warsh’s WSJ Op-Ed Piece
Financial TV is full of talk about Governor Warsh’s opinion piece in Friday’s Wall Street Journal. One theory is that it was a shot across Chairman Bernanke’s bow. I doubt it, but even if it was in...
View ArticleThe War on Banks
Getting Curiouser and Curiouser Many mistakes were made during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and we seem determined to repeat all of them. They include starting a trade war with Smoot-Hawley,...
View ArticleThe Big Bad Banks: The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves
First, we see our government low-balling the expected returns for the Tarp investments in banks so that an additional tax on banks can be justified—including banks that never receive the investments...
View ArticleBailouts, Failures, and Death Panels
They are now making jokes about death panels — not to pull the plug on Grandma in the reformed health-care regime, but to pull the plug on banks and other large institutions posing risk in the reformed...
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